


木蘭

by afterandalasia



Category: Mulan (1998)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Comfort, Community: disney_kink, F/M, Miscarriage, Romance, Tenderness, Warrior Women
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 21:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2285091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulan's fighting spirit did not just come from her father's side.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Deanoned April 2016.</p>
            </blockquote>





	木蘭

**Author's Note:**

> Something of an AU, based on the Disney Kink [prompt](http://disney-kink.livejournal.com/4400.html?thread=3715376) that "Mulan doesn't get her badassery from her dad".
> 
> The title is Traditional Chinese for 'Mulan'. The timeline here is rather wonky, I'm afraid, but hey, this is Disney. Matrilineal surnames are probably pre-1000 BC, footbinding is 900AD onwards, and the Hun Empire was about 200BC-400AD. What can I say, Disney is a magical place.
> 
> 'Wushu' is martial arts; 'Niang zi' is an affectionate term for a wife. 'Mulan' means wood-orchid, and is a species of magnolia. Surnames follow Cantonese romanisations.

Chen Zhou goes off to war with armour on his back, a sword at his hip, and a stern look in his eye.  
  
He does not come back.  
  
The people of the village could barely have expected him to find a wife at such a time, but fate finds strange ways of enacting itself, and when he returns it is in a carriage, with his armour and sword stowed, and a wife riding beside him.  
  
Fa Zhou returned to the village, with a woman called Fa Li and her mother also.  
  
They do not ask for the story; that would be impolite, improper. They do not ask why Fa Li does not have bound feet, though her mother does and seems to suffer no ill by it. From the corners of their eyes they watch, and from the corners of their mouths they whisper, and wait to see what might be revealed.  
  
Little is. Fa Li is kind and soft-spoken, and seems quite the perfect wife. She pours tea beautifully, and as placation to the offended matchmaker produces a beautiful screen of hand-painted silk with scenes of northern mountains and wispy clouds.  
  
Sometimes, as they stand out on the bridge that overlooks the stream, and watch the flower petals drift down, Zhou wraps his arm around Li's waist and draws her closer. "Do you ever miss _Wushu_?" he asks softly, as if it is a faraway town or a village they had once visited.  
  
Li thinks of the scars that twist her husband's thigh, and of her father's unmarked grave far to the north. "No," she replies, and most of the time it is honest. "I am happy now, as _Niang zi_."  
  
He smiles, and kisses her sweetly, and when they retire to their bed and blow out the candle at their bedside neither can see the scars of the other.  
  
When a child begins to swell her womb she is elated, but it is not to be and the child slips away again before even being born. Mutedly she and Zhou comfort each other, but it is in her mother's lap that she allows herself to weep. "Do the ancestors deem me no woman after what I have done?" she asks. "Is this my punishment?"  
  
Her mother brushes her tears from her cheeks and kisses her brow. "No, my daughter," she replies. "We need simply wait for a child strong enough to be born to you."  
  
Years pass, and she puts aside her life as it had once been, the only daughter of a great warrior and fiercely strong herself. She puts on her role as wife and homekeeper like a warm blanket on her shoulders, and rarely misses the way that the cold once bought fire to her cheeks.  
  
Eventually a child quickens within her; her mother listens to her belly and prays for a while to the ancestors, and comes back with a satisfied nod. "This one is strong," she says. "I'd beware how strong, but with the blood in her veins nothing else could be expected!"  
  
Zhou does not mind that it might be a daughter. No doubt there will be whispers in the village again, as there have been these long years when no child was born, but he does not care for the thoughts of others. He did not care when he saw the young Fa Li, her father's sword in her hand, fighting to protect her village from the invading Huns, and he does not care now.  
  
He plucks a magnolia blossom from the tree, and slips it into his wife's hair. "As beautiful as the orchid, and as strong as the wood," he says softly. Li finds a smile. "I could ask for nothing more."  
  
When the daughter is born, they name her _Mulan_ ; for the offering to the ancestors at the great temple, Li offers up her father's sword, and remembers for one last time how it felt within her hands. She prays that a child born of battle-parents, born of those who met on the battlefield, can live their life without taking battle themselves. But at least, she knows, if battle comes again they are strong enough.


End file.
